PEORIA — For several hours, Nathan Leuthold talked to police with ease and confidence, guiding the interview as he wanted, until police said they wanted to “dig deeper” into the situation surrounding his wife’s death last year.

And once Peoria police detectives read him his Miranda rights, Leuthold, shoulders slumped, his voice scratchy after several hours of talking, indicated he wanted to go home.

“I don’t want to say something that would be misconstrued. I don’t like all these rights warnings,” he told the detectives before agreeing to talk with them.

At the time, he wasn’t a suspect, but within two weeks, he was charged with Denise Leuthold’s death. The former Baptist missionary is on trial this week and faces at least 45 years behind bars if he’s convicted.

The statements were part of a four-hour videotape interview hours after Denise Leuthold was found shot to death in their home on Mossville Road. Nathan Leuthold was talking to police as part of their initial investigation.

On the fourth day of Nathan Leuthold’s trial, the jury heard three hours of the interview before Judge Kevin Lyons ordered a break for the day. Nathan Leuthold related what he did on Feb. 14, 2013, from the time he woke up until he came home after 3 p.m. and found his garage door open and saw broken glass inside the house through an open door.

He wasn’t worried, he said, about his wife missing calls or not picking up their kids from school until he got home and saw that her car was missing. He took a few steps inside the garage and, through a door, saw the broken glass. He stepped back, called his father, and then 911.

At times, Nathan Leuthold got snippy with detectives; the strain and the stress apparent. About halfway through the interview, he grew increasingly impatient with police and kept asking when he could go home. Other times, he seemed relaxed, calm and able to banter.

The wide-ranging interview dealt with Nathan Leuthold’s currency trading issues — he bought devalued Iraqi money, hoping to make a profit — to his wife’s issues with depression.

Telling detectives he didn’t want to disparage his late wife, Nathan Leuthold spent several minutes going over how she suffered from seasonal depression and was taking homeopathic medication. He told police how the depression affected his relationship with her and with the children.

And he told them how he thought of leaving his work as a missionary to be home with the children.

Denise Leuthold knew guns were in the house and wasn’t the type to shy away from using one, Nathan Leuthold told police. She would have tried to get to a .40-caliber Glock handgun that was stored in their bedroom, Nathan Leuthold said at one point in the interview.

Page 2 of 2 - But later, he said the gun was in a box that only he had the combination for.

Earlier testimony indicated Denise Leuthold died from a single shot to the head by a .40-caliber Glock handgun. Nathan Leuthold’s Glock as well as a .22-caliber handgun have not been found since the day his wife was killed. He reported them stolen.

Earlier Thursday, jurors watched a prerecorded videotaped deposition where a Lithuanian translator testified that Nathan Leuthold told Aina Dobilaite that he “loved her” and that “she understood him better than anyone else.”

Karile Vaitkute, a translator who works at a Lithuanian museum in Chicago, said Nathan Leuthold, 39, told the 21-year-old Dobilaite, “I like how you can make me laugh more than everyone else.”

Those emails were apparently sent in August 2012 and appear to fly in the face of an assertion by the Lithuanian woman on Wednesday that the two were not romantically involved.

It matters because prosecutors believe Nathan Leuthold killed his wife of 17 years to be with Dobilaite, a student the couple brought from the former Soviet nation to study here in the United States.

To that end, prosecutors had a pastor, David Sexton, from LaMarsh Baptist Church, testify that he spoke with Nathan and Denise Leuthold about the former being seen alone with Dobilaite.

That, Sexton said, was bad for him and the church. Sexton testified he told Nathan Leuthold to stop or risk losing support for his missionary work. Another official at another church then testified that Nathan Leuthold was getting up to $2,500 every two weeks for his missionary work.

Prosecutors also presented evidence they believe shows that Nathan Leuthold’s family was helping to pay for Dobilaite’s legal bills.

Lyons allowed Vaitkute to come to Peoria in June and record an hourlong statement about recorded phone calls from the Peoria County Jail, text messages and emails in Lithuanian.

Lyons told jurors to report to the courthouse early Friday and indicated he was hopeful the trial could conclude later that day though it seems like a daunting task. It wasn’t clear if Nathan Leuthold would testify.

Andy Kravetz can be reached at 686-3283 or akravetz@pjstar.com. For live courtroom updates, follow him on Twitter @andykravetz.